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Ethan Mather Premieres Short Film on Lost Geodesic Dome

Published by jon buono on Tue, 2010-05-04 10:19

Image by Tai Ray-Jones, http://www.flickr.com/photos/25502743@N08/

Los Angeles landscape architect and filmmaker, Ethan Mather, recently premiered his new short film "A Necessary Ruin" at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. and the New York City Center for Architecture.

Upon its completion in October 1958, the Union Tank Car Dome, located north of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was the largest clear-span structure in the world. Based on the engineering principles of the visionary design scientist and philosopher Buckminster Fuller, this geodesic dome was, at 384 feet in diameter, the first large scale example of this building type. "A Necessary Ruin" relates the powerful, compelling narrative of the dome’s history via interviews with architects, engineers, preservationists, media, and artists; animated sequences demonstrating the operation of the facility; and hundreds of rare photographs and video segments taken during the dome’s construction, decline, and demolition.